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WITN
WITN-TV is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Washington, North Carolina, United States and serving Eastern North Carolina's Inner Banks region. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 32 (or virtual channel 7 via PSIP) from a transmitter in Grifton Township along NC 118. Owned by Gray Television, WITN-TV has studios on East Arlington Boulevard in Greenville. History The station signed-on September 28, 1955 from facilities on U.S. 17 in Chocowinity (outside Washington, though with a Washington mailing address). It was the area's second television outlet to launch after Greenville's WNCT-TV (channel 9). It was an NBC affiliate from the start but shared secondary ABC relations with WNCT until the 1963 sign-on of WNBE-TV (channel 12, now WCTI-TV) in New Bern. WITN's first broadcast was game 1 of the 1955 World Series. WITN aired an analog signal on VHF channel 7 from the region's highest transmitter at that time; its current tower was also one of the tallest structures in the United States. The station was originally owned by North Carolina Television, a consortium of radio stations from Northeastern North Carolina. Majority ownership was held by the Roberson family, owners of WITN radio (930 AM, now WDLX; and FM 93.3, now WERO). The group held onto the television station until 1985, when it was sold to AFLAC. It added the -TV suffix to its call sign on July 31, 1978. In 1997, AFLAC sold its broadcasting group to Retirement Systems of Alabama which merged with Ellis Communications to form Raycom Media. However, Raycom could not keep WITN for long due to a significant signal overlap with Wilmington's WECT, an Ellis property that was part of the deal. WITN's city-grade signal reaches the northern portion of the Wilmington market. At the time, the FCC normally did not allow one company to own two stations with overlapping signals, and would not even consider a waiver for a city-grade overlap. What was then known as Gray Communications (now Gray Television) bought the station later in 1997. It has been broadcasting a full-power digital signal since June 2006. On January 7, 2009, a high definition feed of WITN was launched on DirecTV and can now also be obtained on Dish Network. It switched to digital-only broadcasting on June 12. However, WITN has been digital-only since February 19, 2009. In June 2013, the station moved from its longtime home outside Washington to new high definition-ready studios in Greenville. In addition to offering network and syndicated programming, WITN was also a multimedia rights partner for East Carolina University Athletics from 1998 to 2014. In addition to hosting the weekly coaches' shows for football and basketball, the station produced live broadcasts of select games that were not picked up nationally by ESPN as part of its deal with Conference USA. Even though most of the broadcasts were limited to its own market, WITN got other television outlets throughout North Carolina to carry a football game in 2003 which saw ECU competing against in-state rival University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium. WNCT-TV recently picked up the ECU sports package, just as the school moved its programs to the American Athletic Conference On June 25, 2018, Gray announced it was merging with Raycom. The sale was completed on January 2, 2019. WITN-DT2 WITN-DT2 is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated second digital subchannel of WITN-TV, broadcasting in standard definition on UHF channel 32.2 (or virtual channel 7.2 via PSIP). On cable, the subchannel can be seen on Suddenlink digital channel 138 and Charter Spectrum digital channel 121 or 198. History Originally, WITN-DT2 served as a 24-hour local weather channel. It picked up MyNetworkTV on September 28, 2009 after the area's Ion Television owned-and-operated station WEPX-TV, channel 38 (and its full-time satellite, WPXU-TV, channel 35) dropped the programming service. At that point, local weather programming was reduced to overnights and mornings while syndicated offerings made up the rest of WITN-DT2's schedule. A further addition to that service occurred April 18, 2011 when it added MeTV and dropped all remaining weather-related programming with the new network taking up most of the weekend and daytime schedule. Eventually, a new third digital subchannel signed-on and began offering a 24-hour live feed of WITN's own Doppler weather radar. On January 17, 2013, it separated programming from MyNetworkTV and MeTV onto dedicated digital subchannels (with MeTV relocating to the third subchannel). However, WITN-DT2 simulcasts WITN-DT3 during overnight periods. For a period of time, WITN-DT2 could also be seen on the digital tier of Time Warner Cable in the greater Wilmington area since that market's MyNetworkTV affiliate, W47CK, was technically ineligible for carriage on cable providers due to its low-powered status. As a result, the clearance allowed WITN-DT2 to unofficially serve as Wilmington's MeTV outlet (since, at that time, there was no television outlet affiliated with the network in that area). Eventually, Time Warner Cable (now Charter Spectrum) picked up W47CK and subsequently dropped WITN-DT2 from the lineup. Programming Syndicated programming on WITN-DT2 includes The Middle, Cash Cab, The People's Court, and Divorce Court among others. Category:NBC affiliated stations Category:MyNetworkTV Affiliates Category:Channel 7 Category:1955 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1955 Category:Greenville/New Bern/Washington/Jacksonville Category:North Carolina Category:Former ABC affiliates Category:Gray Television Category:VHF Category:NBC North Carolina Category:MyNetworkTV North Carolina